


Beyond a Shadow of a Doubt

by AGL03



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: Dadcliffe, F/M, Fitz in peril, FitzSimmons - Freeform, Protective Jemma
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-02
Updated: 2016-08-02
Packaged: 2018-07-28 19:56:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,671
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7654582
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AGL03/pseuds/AGL03
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Tumblr Prompt:  could you write a fic about Jemma being really protective of Fitz when Radcliffe is concerned after Radcliffe tells Fitz that he's his biological father?   Radcliffe has to prove that he isn't the man they thought he was...</p>
            </blockquote>





	Beyond a Shadow of a Doubt

**Author's Note:**

> Well Anon you have impeccable timing on this request because I was literally chatting with a few people just the other day about something very similar happening on the show! How we can see Jemma really not liking Radcliffe and how she tolerates him for Fitz…and maybe a bit of vice versa, he tolerates her for Fitz and they are forced to work together to save him at some point. 
> 
> So I hope you enjoy this!

Radcliffe sat in his office, the soft classical music playing, his computer showing each and every file he could find on one Leopold Fitz….who was in fact Leopold Fitz Radcliffe, his son. The result of a one night stand decades ago with a girl Radcliffe still struggled to remember despite looking at her picture in Fitzsimmons lab. 

They had found out on accident, the pair had been put through a routine medical work up when coming to work in his labs. Aida interrupting them as they had been getting settled with the news. 

Fitz had taken the news in stride, better than anyone in fact. Jemma personally running the results five times to check for accuracy while Radcliffe had promptly passed out. Jemma hadn’t been fond of him to begin with and learning he’d never been in the picture for Fitz until now didn’t do him any favors. In fact his efforts to make up for lost time only stoked her ire. 

But he wasn’t her father, he was Fitz’s and Fitz being the saint he was still wanted to stay on and even more so gave Radcliffe a chance. Something that shocked Holden to his core. He wanted so desperately to make up for lost time. To have a relationship with Leo. 

This would be something according to Jemma he would have to earn and work for. Radcliffe starting with doing his homework and finding every scrap of information he could on his son. 

He had just opened a file provided by Agent May detailing what had happened to him in Shields fall when the door to his office was blasted open, one of his security guards sailing through the door, limp and bleeding on the floor. 

“Aida!” Radcliffe called but only getting static in response. 

“Your pet can’t help you now Doctor,” a voice said from the door as a horribly familiar face entered flanked by armed men. Doctor Aaron Isaacs, a former employee he had let got just months ago for altering tech into weapons and selling it to the highest bidder on the black market. 

“What do you want?” Radcliffe hissed standing his ground. He had vowed after Hive that he wouldn’t cower in fear again. He needed to show both Fitz and Simmons he was better than the man Shield had rescued from Hive. Better than the man that had made those abominations and risked the entire worlds population to save his own life.

Isaacs advanced, his men seizing the doctor and forcing him from behind his desk. “My research, my prototypes, everything you took when you terminated me.” 

“No,” Radcliffe said defiantly. “What you made was no better than what Hydra had done with Cybertek if not worse. Kill me if you must but I will not permit you to pervert science for violence sake.” 

Isaacs turned his men dragging Radcliffe with them, “I was so hoping you would say that. You see I’ve been watching you even have a few friends here on the inside,” the comment making Radcliffe’s heart fall. Did he know?

“And imagine my delight to learn you had a son, here, and from I hear an incredibly brilliant one at that.”

He knew.

“Don’t touch him!” Radcliffe snarled before he could stop himself. Tugging fruitlessly at the hands that held him. Isaacs laughing again as they arrived at one of the many conference rooms, more of the armed men guarding the door. 

“Well you see Holden, I already did,” Isaacs said opening the door.

Radcliffe wanted to be sick at the sight before him. Fitz lay on a make shift bed on the floor in the farthest corner, blood seeping from a cut on his head, livid purple bruises on his neck that Radcliffe could see even from the door. Jemma was next to him; tears staining her face with one hand clutching to Fitz and the other one stroking his head. 

Her normally gentle eyes locked on his own and narrowed in hatred. Clearly conveying, This is all your fault. 

Isaacs suddenly filled his line of vision, “I’m going to leave you in here with him to think about your decision Holden. My men are currently tearing this place apart to take anything of value and when I come back you will tell me what you did with my prototypes and research. If not, I will make him suffer in ways you cannot even imagine right before your very eyes….maybe the girl too. Though she is awfully lovely I would hate to damage such a pretty thing.” 

Radcliffe couldn’t help the panicked look that crossed his face, eyes fixing on Fitz once again. Isaacs and his men leaving and locking the door behind him. 

He was on the move, needing to get closer, touch him, and assure himself that Fitz was alive and breathing.

“Don’t you dare,” Jemma hissed as he closed in placing herself in front of his son. 

“Jemma, I’m sorry,” He started but honoring her wishes and staying out of arms reach. “I’m so sorry I never wanted him to get hurt. And I swear I will do whatever it takes to keep him safe.” 

Jemma didn’t back down, “They did this to him because of you,” she said her voice bordering between a growl and a sob. “They strangled him right in front of me, I had to watch him gasping for breath until he passed out and they finally let him go. For what, to send you a message!”

He took a small step closer holding up his hands in what he hoped was a placating gesture. “He’s a former employee,” Radcliffe tried again.

“I’m very well aware of that, one of his little spies filled him in on everything. They knew everything about us…do you know why they strangled him?” She snapped again. Getting silence in return. Radcliffe only able to nod having read what had happened to the pair at the hands of Grant Ward. The fact that man had gone on to get his hands on them again just mere months ago, intent of sacrificing Fitz to that thing still made his blood boil. 

“Jemma please, let me see him,” Radcliffe said softly, pleading. “I have no doubt you have addressed his wounds but I need to see…feel….”

Jemma knew what he wanted. She herself drawing immense comfort from feeling the steady beat of Fitz’s pulse under her fingertips. “You don’t deserve him,” Jemma said as she relented and resumed her station at Fitz’s side. 

“I am well aware of that,” Radcliffe said lowering himself to the floor and gingerly running his fingers across Fitz’s cheek. Willing his eyes to open if even for a moment. “And I meant it Jemma, I will do whatever it takes to keep him safe…to keep you safe. I promised you a better life here and we aren’t even a month in and look at where we are at.” 

“What is it they want?” Jemma asked.

Radcliffe took Fitz’s free hand in his own, “He was working on enhancements that were weapons and selling them. Very much like what you encountered with Cybertek and Centipede. I destroyed all of the prototypes after his termination, however it’s only a matter of time before they find the research and designs in the archives.”

Jemma stayed silent for a moment, “He’s going to tell you not to do it,” she said meeting Radcliffe in the eye. “When he wakes up and finds out they are using him as the leverage against you. He’s going to tell you not to listen, to let them kill him.”

“No chance in hell I’m allowing that to happen,” Radcliffe said quickly even earning a small smile from Jemma. “Leo does not get a say in the matter, not when his life is on the line and I can do something about it.”

“He hates that,” Jemma said quietly. “Leo, he hates being called Leo.”

Radcliffe looked at her with a small smile. This was the first bit of information Jemma had given him. “Thank you,” he said sincerely. 

Jemma’s eyes welled with tears and she reached out placing her hand over Radcliffe’s, “Promise me you won’t hurt him,” she said her voice almost desperate.

“Jemma, I already said that I would do whatever-“he stared.

“No,” Jemma said fiercely. “I know you are going to protect him physically. But I need you to promise you won’t hurt him emotionally. Fitz has such a big heart and he freely gives it. And in the last few years he has been betrayed or hurt by nearly everyone he trusted, including me. I don’t know if he can bear that again…especially from you. I need to know that you aren’t going to hurt him like that. That he isn’t some sort of toy or project to you that you will get bored of and move on when something new and fancy comes along.”

Radcliffe wanted to know what she meant by herself and other’s having betrayed Fitz, only knowing of what Ward had done. That was a discussion for another day. “I promise Jemma, my intentions are nothing but good when it comes to Fitz. I have decades to make up for and I understand that I have to earn his….and your trust. His love. I am not proud of what I have done and will work every day the rest of my life to be the father that he deserves.” 

Jemma studied him carefully before squeezing his hand and pulling away. “That is all I ask,” she said the rest of her statement dying on her lips as Fitz groaned softly.

She moved quickly, cupping his face and leaning over him in time to watch his eyes flutter open. “Jemma?” he rasped, wincing at the pain of talking. 

“I’m fine,” she assured wishing she at least had a bit of water to offer him. Their captors had ignored her demands for water and first aid supplies. His hand coming up and cupping her face before realizing his other one was entrapped in an unfamiliar grip. 

“Da?” Fitz asked trying to get his eyes to focus. 

Tears welled in Radcliffe’s eyes and the single simple word. Fitz hadn’t called him that yet and he had underestimated how much it would affect him. “I’m here,” he said his voice breaking. 

Fitz let Jemma help him sit up though leaning heavily against her and panting from the effort. His throat, chest, and head all felt as if they were on fire. “Whatever they want, don’t do it. Just let them kill me and keep Jemma safe,” Fitz said as firmly as he could manage. 

“See, told you,” Jemma said holding him to her. 

Radcliffe offered a faint smile and stroked his sons head. “Not a chance my boy,” he said as Fitz tried to protest from Jemma’s embrace. “I won’t even need to cooperate, everything he is after is in the mainframe and he’ll have that in no time. We just need to hang on until help arrives. I programmed a distress signal to go to Shield should Aida ever be forced off line.”

The pair looked at him with a mixture of shock and appreciation. “What? You two aren’t the only geniuses here you know. And I do rather enjoy how Shield mobilizes when one of their own is in danger.” 

Isaacs chose that moment to renter the room with a tablet in hand. Radcliffe was on his feet first and placed himself in front of the pair. Jemma helped Fitz up but keeping her arms wrapped tightly around him. In the hallway he could see Isaacs’s men pushing cart after cart of his tech down the hall.

Isaacs grinned at the sight, “Nice to see everyone is awake again. Holden, I found my research and a number of delightful toys in the vault. Those two,” he said indicating Fitzsimmons “are quite talented to say the least. I can’t wait to see what kind of modifications I can add. However, I couldn’t locate the prototypes for my research. Where are they?”

“Where they belong, in a landfill smashed to bits,” Radcliffe snapped.

There was a growl and Isaacs pulled out a gun, “Do you have any idea how long those took me to build. I have buyers who want them and our timeline is not negotiable.” 

Radcliffe didn’t seem to care instead deciding it was the perfect moment to demonstrate where Fitz got his ‘sass the bad guys’ genes from. “Well that is a shame, I understand the Seychelles are quite lovely this time of year. Perhaps you can go hide there.” 

Jemma felt Fitz tense up as Isaacs moved forward, Radcliffe holding his ground and keeping himself between the threat and his son. Flinching only slightly as the cold barrel of the gun was placed under his chin. “Or how about I take Leopold with me to help me get them built in time. I understand he is quite the accomplished engineer, even more so than you.” 

“Over my dead body,” Radcliffe growled.

Before Isaacs could respond that it would be his pleasure, Fitz had moved forward, Radcliffe surprised she had let him stray from her protective grasp, and pulled the gun away from Radcliffe’s throat. “No,” Fitz said quickly.

Radcliffe tried to push him back and again wondering where mother hen Jemma was and why she was even allowing this. “Fitz, please get back,” he warned but Fitz remained rooted in place.

“Let my father go, promise you won’t hurt him or anyone else here and I will go with you willingly. Do whatever you want. Just promise me you won’t hurt anyone,” Fitz said. Radcliffe reminded with a start that he had done something very similar with him in trying to secure his help in saving Daisy. They definitely needed to discuss this self-sacrificing thing. At length. 

“See Holden, why can’t you be more accommodating like your kiddo here. He’s a smart man, knows when he’s been beat,” Isaacs said as he lowered the weapon completely. 

Fitz letting out a small laugh “Oh, I was merely the distraction. Really, you took your eye off the real threat here.” 

Isaacs cocked his head in confusion before there was a tap on his shoulder. He turned just enough to see Jemma and one of the chairs from the room colliding with his face. Dropping him to the floor unconscious. “That would be me,” Jemma said as she tossed the chair aside and ran to Fitz, wrapping her arms around him. Radcliffe shocked when her tiny arm pulled him in as well. 

They stayed there for a few moments before Radcliffe pulled away. Unable to stop his hands from squeezing Fitz’s shoulder before pulling away. “I never wanted-“

Fitz shook his head while pulling Jemma closer, a small smile playing on his lips. “In all fairness, Jemma and I should come with come with some sort of warning label. Frequent kidnappings and all.” 

Radcliffe didn’t think it was funny as he surveyed his son with a severe look. “It’s my job to protect you. I have already failed far too many times and I fear I don’t know them all yet.”

“It’s our job to protect each other,” Fitz said peering into the hall as the unmistakable sound of Shield storming the lab echoing down the hall. Isaacs men no match for the well trained and very angry Shield agents. “Now if you will excuse me I am going to go convince Agent May we night need a few of them alive.” 

Jemma moved to follow stopping in the door for only a moment looking back at Radcliffe. “He’s wanted a monkey to help him in the lab since the moment I met him, do with that what you will,” she said before dashing to catch up with Fitz.

Radcliffe making a note to discuss the matter with Aida as soon as he got her program back online. 

End


End file.
